The organization of settlements in terms of space allocation and diversification as well as their relation with and impact on their natural environment are interwoven modules of three projects which aim to provide information on multifaceted aspects of the life in ancient communities in Anatolia.

Central concern is to understand aspects of the ways that site layouts were formed by both centralized planning as well as the daily activities of those living in, the use of private and public space, the sequences of building, abandonment/destruction and rebuilding of houses and communal buildings, street systems and organization of refuse disposal. The social and economic meaning of these is to be inferred with the information obtained by a number of environmental materials recovered within these spaces.

Since economy is the basis for the whole system to operate, its definition is a primary aim, firstly at the level of explaining food acquirement and provisions and clarifying the food production/consumption sequence and then through this information, the modes of exploitation of the land surrounding the settlement will be studied. A step further, relations between neighboring and further away settlements are sought to be established examining trade through both food remains and vessels that carried them.

In this work a range of archaeological materials (animal and plant remains, soils and ceramics) and techniques (zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, microarchaeology, micromorphology, and petrography) are used at the study of three pilot projects.

The first is the ancient city of Knidos, excavated by Prof. Dr. Numan Tuna, which represents a settlement built in a formal orthogonal layout. The urban arrangement remained the same throughout the occupation of the city (from Archaic to Hellenistic) even when the residential blocks were turned into workshops.

*Funded by the Ministry of Culture

The second is the site of Komana, near Tokat. This is a complex settlement system with long sequence of occupation (from Prehistoric to Early Islamic times) and a wide range of architectural arrangements including flat, valley level expanses of residential and public buildings as well as a defended summit which also included, at different periods of use, residential and industrial units and a cemetery. There, the development of the settlement represents totally different traditions than those we have in ancient Knidos. The site is excavated by Prof. Dr. Burcu Erciyas.

*Funded by TÜBİTAK.

The third project uses materials recovered during the Keban dam salvage excavations overviewed by TEKDAM - METU under the presidency of Prof. Dr. Kemal Kurdaş. The sites under consideration are the Aşvan and Taşkun Kale, Taşkun Mevkii and Çayboyu. The excavations were directed by David French. For this project, only one type of materials are examined, animal remains, but the focus moves from one site to the regional scale aiming to understand the development and the animal husbandry regimes in the area and the relationship between the four settlements.

*Funded by the British Institute at Ankara and the British Academy.

In addition to these projects, the unit provides training on these subjects for students of the Settlement Archaeology interdisciplinary program and houses their MA and PhD projects.